Decision Aids, Doorknob Moments, and Physician-Patient Solidarity in EDs.

Journal: AMA journal of ethics
Published Date:

Abstract

Potential benefits of decision aids and technology, such as artificial intelligence, used at the bedside are many and significant. Like any tools, they must be used appropriately for specific tasks, since even validated decision aids have limited utility when they are misapplied, overly relied upon, or used as a substitute for thinking carefully about clinically and ethically relevant questions. Patients are more than data points in human form, as they come to emergency departments with stories. As technology casts ever-lengthening shadows over patient-clinician interactions, a key question is: How should clinicians cultivate relationships with technology so it functions in solidarity with patients?

Authors

  • Emily Shearer
    Second-year emergency medicine resident at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.
  • Jay Baruch
    Professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.